began about 1.8 million years ago) and no wide
spread, severe, or simultaneous set of extinctions
at its close. Mostly the large African mammals of
20,000 years ago have survived as the large Afri
can mammals of today. For that reason, Africa
has been called the "living Pleistocene." It stands
to remind us of an epoch, before the rise of Homo
sapiens,when the planet was really big and wild.
But remember another thing: The survival of
Africa's wildlife hasn't depended on an absence
of people. It has happened, to the contrary, amid
constant human presence. We ourselves are an
African species, at least by origin. We first emerged
in this place, attaining our current shape, our
brain size, our social instincts, and our sense of
identity during millennia spent as members
of rough-and-tumble African ecosystems. The
animals adjusted to our presence-to our slowly
but radically increasing capabilities-even as we
adapted to life among them. One lesson along
the route to civilization, learned accidentally
by African peoples, and evidently not portable
when humans dispersed elsewhere, was the pos
sibility and rightness of coexisting with other
formidable species, even those sometimes as
menacing as ourselves.
That was a virtue derived from necessity.
And now the necessity is gone. Killing wildlife,
extinguishing species, and destroying habitat are
easy with our current weapons and tools. Pre
serving the last of the great beasts in their land
scapes, despite human needs and pressures
roundabout, is more difficult. But wait, here's a
thought, unabashedly hopeful and as wild as an
aardvark: Maybe modern Africa is where we can
rediscover how it's done.
Cool mud tempers a stifling day in Botswana's Chobe National Park. With soldiers enforcing
antipoaching laws, elephant numbers in Botswana have topped 120,000-an all-too-rare
successfor African wildlife. Some officials urge elephant culling to reduce vegetation damage
and hazardous encounters with humans, but biologists sayparks can support the growing herds.
AFRICAN WILDLIFE 129